THE MODERN HOME

Northern Advocate, 21 January 1935, Page 10

THE MODERN HOME

KITCHEN FACILITIES. BREAKFAST NOOKS. An antiquated kitchen does more to lower the value of a home than any other room in it. You will never regret including a breakfast nook in your plans. , And be sure that it is bright, sunny and cheerful, to obtain the greatest amount of comfort and service. Think of the work a breakfast nook saves. It is usually an alcove near the kitchen, and those tiresome trips to the dining-room are avoided in the morning, at least. Tablecloths may be dispensed with if desired, it is so delightfully informal. Early and late risers can be accommodated without especial inconvenience.

. This device is becoming more popular in these servantless days, where both breakfast and luncheon may be served. In the morning, a few steps from the range take you into the delightful little alcove, just wide enough to hold a long, narrow table and two seats, or a small table and four chairs. What a saving of time and labour not to have to set the dining-room table for the quick breakfast or for the cup of tea when the cheery neighbour steps in around four o’clock.

The breakfast nook should be bright, sunny and cheerful, or it will fail in its mission. It may be as gay as you please, with bright curtains at the window and a flowerpot on the sill to add another bit of decoration. The low balustrade between the sink bench and the dining alcove merely shuts out the workaday part of the kitchen, making a cosy dining nopk. They call them “breakfast nooks,” but they save just as many steps and are just as convenient for other meals if you have a small family. Intimate and comfortable, they help to start the day off with a smile. They can be designed large and roomy, easily accommodating four people. In planning many modern small homes, the dining room is omitted entirely and a dining alcove substi-

tuted. This means a very substantial saving in construction and heating costs. The seats in the breakfast nook may be upholstered to harmonise with the adjoining room or the curtains at the window.

There is nothing so vitally important to the health and welfare of the family as well prepared foods and well chosen diets. This fact is now realised by many thoughtful persons who consider the kitchen (or home workshop—as it may be called) the most important room in the home. Nowadays, in well-ordered homes the kitchen is a place in which the guests are as welcome as in the living room. Why not? Sanitary conveniences, utility cabinets, beautifully, decorated dining nooks are all attractive equipment particularly suited for the entertainment cf friends as v/ell as for family use.

All women like modern labour-sav-ing kitchens, but are afraid the costs are high, but it is more often that it i? the design of the kitchen that is a f fault and not in the amount of material used. The curtains of this present-day home-centre are quite apt to be the final touch, and for them we have moisture-proof sunproof fabrics that will stand all kinds of heat and steaming. Even the oldtime oilcloth is now gay in design for curtains, shelves or table tops.

We are told that to have our kitchens successful they must be carefully planned when the house is built. True, if one is building, for there is no place in the house where attention pays in bigger returns. But even if one is not building, if one has an oldtime workshop, it can be made efficient and labour-saving. The new, ready-built units of cabinets, drawers and shelves that may be arranged about or near the sink, work-tables and range are standing ready to transform the room. Then by studying the “routes” used in preparing and serving meals, by placing the safe, the range and work-tables and sink in their right step-saving locations, one can have at will a practical workshop.

If women would set themselves to make the kitchen the most attractive,

convenient, and interesting room in the house we would have a comfortable, jolly room: its lighting and finish would be an incentive to linger over a delightful task rather than to hurry through one that is dreaded. It has been said that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. By thei same logic your' antiquated kitchen does more to lower the value of your home than any other room in ( it. The investment of a few pounds in modern kitchen built-in cabinets and drawers and cupboards is .money well spent and assures an immediate return upon your investment.